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Hey Space Cadets, how is everyone on this fine day? I’m doing well, and wanted to bring you my news! My former editor, Corey D Truax, and I have signed our next series with a small publishing house, Theogony Publishing. This umbrella publishing house is a part of the larger and more dynamic Chris Kennedy Publishing. Corey and I scoped him out together, in a totally non-stalker kind of way, and liked how he operated. He’s professional, and another veteran of America’s Armed Forces. I think Corey liked that he was a sailor too, but I forgive them both for their imperfections

So, what to say about The Odera Chronicles without giving too much away? This story tells the tale of Alexis Monroe, one of the first female infantrymen in the US Army. Alexis was an only child, her dad was a Seabee and veteran of the wars in Mesopotamia. After her mother died, it was just the two of them, so she became the son he wanted. Alexis strove to please him and honed her inner tomboy. Shortly after she graduated college, females were being allowed to join the combat arms of the military. Alexis enlisted into the infantry. Alexis did well at training, very well. When those scores were combined with her college degree, she was quickly advanced to the rank of sergeant. Despite how well she did, her fellow grunts always assumed she was promoted because she was female. When she graduated from training at the NCO Academy, she was given an out of the way assignment. Out of sight, out of mind, or so the Army thought. Her job was simple; guard a warehouse, don’t look inside. Of course, she looked – and a grand adventure ensued. To find out more, you will have to read the book.

As you all know, I will keep you up to date with our plans for the series, but for now, less really is more! I really enjoyed working with Corey as he edited The Sleeping Legion series, so I think this collaboration will be a blast. I really hope that the fun we have translates onto the page. We both really want our readers to enjoy this little tale of galactic woe. So, if you’ve enjoyed the shenanigans over here in the Handley Trenches, then re-enlist on the insanity train!

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

JR

–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.

Hello Space Cadets, today is another throwback post.I think this story was posted way back when, before anyone had found this post so I decided it needed an edit because it’s too funny to go unloved.This happened when I was writing book one, The Legion Awakes, in the local Starbucks.The very one whose store number became Lance Scipio’s beloved 6907th TAC Regiment.I was spread out over the long corner table organizing the story, so I could fix issues Tim C. Taylor had with the combat scene.The scene in question was part of what became the novella The Demons of Kor-Lir which is still available to those who sign up for my mailing list.

Like I said, I had to share what happened. I had just finished a very early draft and sent it to my editor, Tim C. Taylor.This was before Corey Truax came into the picture. Anyway, as I poured over his critiques, I noticed that he suggested I bone up on my science and medical knowledge, since my death scenes didn’t read true. Hey, I was a grunt… we haven’t trained to kill people with swords in a few years!And swords in space?Blimey, what sort of Army do you think I served in?For some reason I’m envisioning Stripes meets The Jetsons but I digress. I read Tim’s comments, until I had a flash of insight! I realized my aunt was an ER nurse, so I decided to call her up to go over some things.

While still sitting at the previously mentioned Starbucks I called my aunt – we talked about decapitations, death grips, arterial spray and how long it takes someone to bleed out. Upon finishing my phone call I noticed that the Starbucks had gotten unusually quiet, the long table I was sitting at was suddenly empty and people were reacting as if they’d suddenly smelled something foul. I swear, I almost sniffed my armpits to make sure we were good!Then one of Virginia’s Finest, Officer Friendly, and yes names have been changed to protect the innocent, walked over and sat in the chair opposite mine. When he had my attention, he got chatty.“Everything alright here? Anything you need to confess? Do you need a lawyer?”

Rarely one to be at a loss for words, I quipped a reply chalk full of my usual shenanigans.“Nothing to see here officer, move along,” before laughing nervously. Officer Friendly wasn’t smiling. Sighing, knowing I needed to figure out what was really going on, I asked and waited for the big reveal.

Officer Friendly was right there to clear it up, “So, murder plans this weekend,” he asked. Was it ironically? Meh, I don’t know but I was instantly relieved that there wasn’t something more serious.Did I just type that?Nothing serious about murder?Man, the Army seriously warped my mind!

Smiling, I simply informed him that I was working on my novel and consulting my experts to improve the text. “I’m not a serial killer Officer, I’m just a writer.” Luck was on my side, he chose NOT to check my browser history and all the murderous research I’d been doing.The best part about all of this, it was the first time I called myself a writer out loud and around strangers. Hopefully the times that follow won’t require armed law enforcement and a concerned public! Well, unless the officers are protecting me from adoring crowds as I outsell the great JK Rowling!!

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

JR

–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.

Hello Space Cadets, how is everyone doing today? What’s that? I can’t hear you, sound off like you got a pair! And if you don’t, fake it till you make it! So, now that I have your attention, let’s have a little chat over coffee! Today I decided to give you get a sneak peek into how I wrote my battle scenes. Let’s dive into the world of sand tables, sometimes called Recess for Soldiers!

So where to start, first let me start by discussing what a sand table is. In a nutshell, a sand table is a surface bearing a three-dimensional map of a given piece of land. According the Merriam-Webster, it’s “a table bearing a relief model of a terrain built to scale for study or demonstration especially of military tactics.” Basically, I a super special map! The military has used them since forever, long before Christ was even a Corporal.

Now that I’ve explained what a sand table is, I’ve decided to show you the one I made for my first novel. Yes, The Legion Awakes, which will be published on December 19th, 2016. It’s an improvised sand table for a combat scene in the novel involving a battle that my main character is involved in. Wanna know more, read the book! You’ve probably already read this, but please let me be prideful for just a few words! I’m currently writing The Sleeping Legion Series set in the military science fiction world of Tim C. Taylor. That book will be out soon, so I wanted to share some of how I got here. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let us return to our regularly scheduled programing.

Anyway, the key to a successful sand table is that they provide you with the opportunity to visualize the battle space in three-dimensions. This allows you to better describe the field as you’ve envisioned it. It allows you to envision all of the obstacles which might get in the way of the armies you are describing, though this could work for any type of writing, combat or otherwise. I supposed I would be remiss if I didn’t also tell you that these can be used to model towns, and other generic settings for your works in progress. Not as exciting, but certainly necessary. They are used by the military for strategic visualizations, are extremely helpful with strategic planning, but can be used by everyone!!

Without further adieu, my masterpiece!

My Sand Table

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LEGEND:

Cups: Akoni Mountains

Green Sponges: Dense forests

Brown Building Blocks: Old Government Tower and Akoni City

Blue Paper: Water Features; Dynia River and Lake Charon

Now that we’ve covered this in depth, feel free to sound off in the comments below! And if this tickled your fancy, click the follow button and never miss out on the insanity or shenanigans from the Handley Trenches!

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

JR

–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.

Hello Space Cadets, do you yearn for action and adventure? Does your soul beg to shake free from the shackles of Mother Earth? Do you love reading, diving into fictional universes and then discussing it in depth? Basically, there’s a call out for all of the Geeks, Nerds, Fan boys/Fan girls and all around science fiction fanatics. If this sounds like you, and you want to help an author launch his debut novel, head on over and join the Legionnaires!! Be a part of the adventure, shape it and mold it until it is a piece of literary perfection that Heinlein would be proud of! 🙂

If you want to join the recon teams, you need to first join the Legion, which you can do here. You can then discuss your thoughts on the BattleNet, but you don’t need to do so to chat away. You can find join the discussion here.

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

JR

–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section

Hello Space Cadets, I wanted to share a post which has touched me personally. As I slog through the edits of book two, Fortress Beta City, I find that I need to continually remind myself that this is for the better. As I scrolled through blogs I follow, this jumped out at me. I definitely needed to hear this today. A brief discussion has me wondering about the quality of what is about to go live. If they let me, I’d polish it until nothing was ever published. Because I’m currently anxiously awaiting the return of my second novel from my editors, with another in the final beta review. I’m in the thumb twiddling, nail biting stage of WAITING. I pass the time writing book three and hoping the first two are good enough to warrant publishing this. Reading this post, when the revisions for book two are so massive, was exactly the pep talk I needed. Thank you to the lovely writer, follow her blog, it is worth it!!

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

JR

–> I reblog this on the assumption that the author of said post used all images are used in accordance with copyright laws. She’s a smart cookie so I’m sure they did!

When I write a report about an author’s novel, it usually runs to at least 25 pages of detailed notes and developmental suggestions, plus annotations on the manuscript. Sometimes I’ve written 60-page reports. Although I make my responses constructive and helpful, and discuss strengths as weaknesses, I know it’s daunting to receive such a screed. I know my writers think ‘crikey, she needed to say all that? Did I get it so wrong?’

And this: ‘I thought the book was perfect. What kind of shambolic half-wit does she think I am?’

Well today, I’d like to let you know how the editor sees your book.

My open letter to the edited

Although it may be hard for you to believe when you see the size of my report, I know your manuscript represents aeons more time than the hours it takes me to glide through with my editorial eye…

Hello Space Cadets, how is everyone doing? It has been too long since I’ve written a blog post, and for that I’m truly sorry. First, my wife got sick with the dreaded flu, so true to my husbandly duty I provided care. This involved making loads of chicken noodle soup, manning the fort, and not burning the house down! Then I got sick—thanks to her generous nature. Ugh, I hate being sick but I made it through the other end alive. I would love to tell you I soldiered through it and worked the whole time…but mamma said I shouldn’t tell lies. I spent several days where I got ZERO done. Ugh, I was hoping to have book two done so I could be working on book three but it wasn’t meant to be.

Finally, at the same time I was sick, Hurricane Matthew hit my locale hard. We had a lot of flooding, which caused a few local electrical fires when water got into houses. People lost entire houses when flood damage forced the city to condemn them.

My own personal vehicle flooded, so I’ve had to deal with insurance to get it repaired or replaced. Luckily, State Farm has been awesome and is even upgrading my rental car to a truck since my injury makes tiny cars painful and no mid-range vehicles were available. My contract only requires a car, but they are going above and beyond. I should know in a few days whether they’ll repair it or total it.

All I know at the moment is that they categorized the damage to my vehicle as Class 2 Flood Damage. They found water in my gas tank, mixed in with my oil and sitting inside the cigarette lighter/power port things on my floorboards. To be honest, I forgot they were there so I missed them when I did my best to clean the water out of the inside. Oh, and they found nasties inside my engine itself; things like leaves, trash and other debris from the storm. I back up to our cities water drainage system and it overflowed. It is basically a ditch that connects to a lake, which the city made deeper so rainwater had a place to run off. When we flooded, my car sucked in some of the litter which is sadly in it and it apparently is the opposite of helpful for your engines.

On top of all that, my mother’s house flooded and took on several inches of water. They’ll likely have to gut and redo the entire first floor to account for the water damage. I’ve spent time over there, as much as I could while being sick, helping pull up carpet and other things which have to be done. It definitely could have been worse, so for that we are grateful. All told, Team Handley weathered the storm and came out smiling on the other end. Some did not, AND didn’t have any flood insurance. They’ll be struggling, but it taught us a valuable life lesson: BUY FLOOD INSURANCE if you live in a flood zone!! Sigh, should have been common sense but I guess not.

But all that aside, my mother has been busy getting the corporation ready for the launch of our books. We will have an official bank account tomorrow, and as a gift, she hired someone to do our webpage. Within the month it will be ready, though likely sooner. She hired Matthew from MWS Media Creative Services to do a kickass website for us! When the page goes live, I hope to jump into my previously stated plan for the website. That means I need to get off my arse and come up with questions for my military veteran authors, and for authors in general, about how you manage your writing life with your home life. If you guys have any questions along those lines you’d love to see answered, put them in the comment box.

And since I called this an update, I guess I’ll tell you where I’m at with book two. I’m currently editing it, but I’ve solved all but one of the major plot holes. I’m currently on page 138 of 202 and hope to get even further than that before the day ends. My editor is following close behind me cracking the whip. No really, that wasn’t a metaphor… that crazy Navy bastard has a whip. I think he used to be an Indiana Jones fanboy. I never judge, but those Navy boys are sometimes hard to understand. Me, I preferred Rambo and GI Joe! Of course, that was back when he was an All American Hero, before the remake made him some sort of UN Merc, but I’ll save that rant for another day.

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

JR

–> As usual, all images are found under Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.

Hello Space Cadets, how is everyone doing? I’m well, so is my grandmother! Thank you, truly, to everyone who sent their happy thoughts into the ethos for my Grandma Handley, it meant a lot. As a quick update, I should (fingers crossed) have the new look for my website up within the week. Once it is up, I will let everyone know what is going on with that. We should seamlessly merge it into this page, since I bought the domain and a premium account from WordPress. If it doesn’t work as planned, I will direct everyone where to go… but I hope it isn’t necessary.

Here is a quick look at where I want my blog to go. While I work on getting my professional looking blog and a few articles in every category cued up, I will continue on as I have been. I have to coordinating with the authors I hope to interview, prepare the questions I want to ask and generally be prepared so I don’t look like a boot recruit. If any of you have any general questions for the warrior authors or the family series, post them in the comments!

Marine Monday’s: A series of world building from the Human Legion Universe, to include my own Sleeping Legion.

World Building Wednesdays: A series of posts on my writing process, not necessarily the right or best way, just my way. Dang, now I want some Burger King!

Family Fridays Interview Series: A series of interviews with other writers, editors, agents and anyone else involved in the wild world of books. The focus will be on how we manage our passion for the written word and our duties to our kinfolk.

Warrior Writer Weekend Interview Series: A series of interviews with veterans who write, edit or have any other role within the wild world of books. I will try to publish these on Saturday, but the guarantee is that it will post on a weekend! I want to highlight their service, reflect upon how it has influenced or affected their works and get all fanboy over their stuff! There could be overlap, as many veterans who write also have families, but the focus here will be their service and writing.

Funny Fill Ins: Basically, I’ll keep the witty and humorous bent that I’ve had so far. If it doesn’t fit into another category I will post it on a Tuesday, Thursday or on an open weekend day. I will also post any reblogs on these days as well.

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

JR

–> As usual, all images are found under Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.